Another local scholarship question

Moonstone2
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:53:26 +0000

Greetings,
I have searched on this topic and want to make sure I am understanding some of the information posted. My D. received (offered-not finalized) :


a large merit scholarship (4 yrs.) $20,000 per year
2,500 Need based grant
subsidized and unsubsidized loans totaling about 5,500.


This leaves a sizable amount for us to pay, obviously with COA approx.=51,000

She received word that she has received a local scholarship for 4,500 for each year in college. This is unrestricted and paid directly to college. Will not be paid until student is registered, and paid out every year.

The college policy is vague on the website. I did call, and awards under $500 don’t impact aid., but greater ones might. Here are my questions:

1.Does this award fall under D’s income?
(She currently is not working/can’t find summer job. We did put in an amount anticipating a summer job contribution.)


If unrestricted, can we state we want to use it for room/board, and will that matter? How about books?
I realized we report this scholarship in future years differently (because we can anticipate it in advance), and we will go from there. It gets recorded as student income?
I have read that this would impact loans first, but is that for students who have everything covered in grants and loans? We aren’t even close to that.


Obviously, I am being up front with the school but want to be strategic and well-informed, especially when it comes to reporting and timing. I would like it to not impact need or merit, with the need based obviously going to change perhaps, year to year, based on a number of factors. (Fluctuating income).

Thanks for any advice. This is all new to us. And it goes without saying that we are thrilled with these scholarships.